"The Old Soak's debut, The Old Soak and Hail and Farewell, is in the public domain now. Delving into it you'll find a surprisingly callous approach to addiction, far from, say, the complex and often convivial descriptions of binge drinking in John O'Hara's early novels. The Old Soak is a hauntingly one-note character, and one wonders exactly what about his alcoholism made him such a bankable franchise. Imagine the pitch meetings that followed: "He's a lush, see? He wants to booze it up, but he can't, because of that cursed eighteenth amendment!"--Paris Review